Given the proliferation of places that claim to "teach MMA", I'm wondering--has anyone actually copyrighted or somehow patented the term? Is that even possible?

I don't do MMA (closest I ever came was DJ in Japan, years ago), so I don't have a dog in this one...but I don't see anyone telling a bunch of kids playing a casual game of street hockey not to "dare" to call what they're playing "hockey", even if what they're doing has little in common with pro or serious-ammy hockey.

So, if some random individual with backgrounds in two AMAZING martial arts decided to meld them into "ChunBooj" and advertise it as a "mixed martial art", what could be done about it, other than going on forums and shrieking: "No! You can't do that! It isn't MMA! No, don't! No! Nooo! NOOOOOOOOOO00000ooooo.........." Can it be pursued in court or something along those lines?

Do not misunderstand. I have no problem with the definition of MMA as a specific ruleset, and I'm certainly not advocating that Sifood ChunBooj should be allowed to advertise what he teaches as "MMA". However, unless there's some way--litigation, perhaps--to prevent other definitions (however off-the-mark) from appearing, what can really be done about it?

Peeps gonna do whut they do, money to be made, and like that. Is it really worth getting worked up over?

I don't see anyone telling a bunch of kids playing a casual game of street hockey not to "dare" to call what they're playing "hockey", even if what they're doing has little in common with pro or serious-ammy hockey.

So, if some random individual with backgrounds in two AMAZING martial arts decided to meld them into "ChunBooj" and advertise it as a "mixed martial art", what could be done about it, other than going on forums and shrieking: "No! You can't do that! It isn't MMA! No, don't! No! Nooo! NOOOOOOOOOO00000ooooo.........." Can it be pursued in court or something along those lines?

Well, the street hockey example would be closer if instead of playing loosely organized street hockey, they were running for-profit hockey clinics claiming to teach ice hockey.

In your Chunbooj(tm) example, why cry about it, when we can all laugh and joke about their ridiculous asses instead? You needn't paint Bullshido as the complainers who find this tedious and only do it for...Internet dollars, or whatever.

Based on what I've learned from my research at my university's library, Marcus Valerius Martialis was a poet who lived from 40 AD to approx 103 AD, so the oldest art from Martial was probably some poem he wrote when he was an agnsty teen.

Now if we're talking about oldest published poems of Martial, I'll have to do a bit more research.